Coming into the weekend Class A’s championship was far from decided. It was still all to play for with Andrew Fido and Stephen Larkham in a tight championship battle, separated by only four points. Eighteen points behind Fido, Shane Stoney also stood as an outside contender for the title. He had moved up to third in the championship after a strong penultimate weekend at Brands Hatch, but he would need Fido and Larkham to have a bad day for the championship to swing his way. The same was true for James Keevil who sat in fourth on 57 points. In total, six drivers stood within mathematical contention for the title. The last round at Donington was set to be a thriller, and it did not disappoint.
Leon Morrell had already secured victory in the Class B Championship with a win and a second-place finish at Brands Hatch, but the Vice Champion was still to be decided. Phillip Brown’s absence at Brands Hatch had brought Daniel Headlam, who sat in third slightly into the picture, but there remained a 22-point gap to Brown for him to overcome. Brown’s gap looked comfortable enough to see off any championship threat.
On Saturday morning the drivers were met with cold, wet conditions for qualifying. In Class A Stoney was super quick and put his Radical PR6 on pole with a time of 1:39.072, over six seconds faster than Fido in his Radical SR3 RS. Stoney wouldn’t benefit from his outstanding qualifying for race one though. The grid was reserved for the top eight qualifiers, which placed Stoney down in eighth position, meaning Fido would take his place at the front of the grid. Larkham on the other hand was 21st out of 21 on the grid and had a lot of ground to make up.
Morrell put in the fastest lap for Class B in his Radical SR3 RSX with a time of 1:42.660 but found himself further back in the reverse grid for the first race in fifth. Headlam started second on the front row in Class B followed by Philip Brown.
Race 1
Race one began in the wet, creating difficult conditions for the drivers. Many were struggling for grip and heat in their tyres. Fido had a poor start and lost positions immediately, while Doug Carter didn’t make it past the first lap before succumbing to the slippery track-surface. He slid into the gravel at The Old Hairpin, triggering the safety car. That was not all that lap one had in store for us. Class A leader Fido span behind the safety car whilst taking avoiding action as Stoney’s car cut out due to an electronics failure. Crucially for Fido, he remained ahead of Larkham, but he had lost even more positions. Stoney’s championship challenge on the other hand was over, as was his race.
Racing resumed shortly after, but Ross Board running in third for Class A was the next driver to spin, losing control at Redgate. He’d just had his best qualifying of the season and was in a strong position, but the conditions got the better of him on this occasion.
Once the grid settled down pressure began to be put on the lead car of Headlam. Within a lap Morrell and Keevill had both managed to get ahead. Keevill then managed to clear Morell in a very fine move around Goddards, making himself the lead Radical car.
Board went off again, this time into the gravel, but once again was able to resume. Privateer Andy Boyce was not so fortunate. The Glaswegian had been running in the invitational class in a second generation SR1 up until that point, but his off-track excursion into the gravel ended his race and triggered a second safety car.
Racing resumed swiftly after, only for yet another car to fall victim to the conditions, this time Paul Seward, who was visibly frustrated with himself, having been running in fourth in Class B.
Having already had such a chaotic race, and not wishing to put out yet another safety car, race control put out the chequered flag. Keevil won the race for Class A, his second win of the season and first overall win in a Bikesports race. He also claimed a point for the fastest lap, which brought him right up to the sharp end of the championship fight, now just a few points away from Fido.
It was Headlam who came out on top in Class B, after making a last lap overtake on the three-time Bikesports champion Morrell to take his first win of the season. However, the win was taken away from him after a one second penalty was applied for a previous incident. This promoted Morrell to Class B winner and third overall.
Brown came a respectable third in class B and still retained second place in the Class B championship.
Alicia Barrett deserves credit for running a very good race in her Bikesports debut and keeping her car on track where many others could not, finishing sixth overall and fourth in Class B, just missing out on the podium.
Race 2
The drama began, with Keevill struggling to start his Radical SR3 RSX during the formation lap, forcing him to start the race from the back of the grid. This gave Fido a significant advantage into the final race. Stoney started from pole position and did not look back, providing us with one of the best drives of the season and fully utilising the speed of his Radical PR6.
Morrell also provided spectators with some early entertainment, with a heart-in-mouth excursion onto the grass as he completed lap one. He managed to get the car back on track but lost out to Headlam who took full advantage of the error.
To add to the entertainment pit-stops came into play. The grid could not decide whether to start on wets or slicks. Once the pit lane opened with 20-minutes to go several cars dived in to replace their wets with the quicker slick tyres. Boyce was the first to commit to the stop, with others soon to follow.
It was the pitstops that brought Fido and Keevill close to each other again on track, forcing Keevill to overtake Fido for a chance at the Class A championship win. He danced around the outside of Fido at Coppice Corner and took the position off his rival to take second place in the race.
Stoney was unstoppable, and at points was running three seconds faster than any other car on the grid. He won by nearly thirty-one seconds and also took the class lap record by half a second.
Keevill fended off Fido to keep hold of second place, leaving Fido third. It also meant that he secured the Class A Championship win. Keevill and Fido finished the season on the same points, but Keevill won based on win countback. It was an impressive performance; especially given he had started the weekend with a large gap to Fido to overhaul.
Barrett had a long stop which ruined her chances of being competitive this race, and her pace was short of her closest rivals. Matthew Price also had a confusing stop, with the team seemingly unclear what he wanted changed to the car.
Brown ran a quiet but strong race in Class B with a strong pace, finishing second overall and first in class. He managed to take the lead from Headlam with five minutes left to go, Headlam continued to drop back, with Morrell seizing second, but managed to secure the final podium spot for Class B.
Vikram Sudera also had a solid Saturday. It was his first weekend in an SR1 and he had little time to familiarise himself with the car. He drove two clean races and secured an invitational win in tricky conditions.
The 750 Motor Club Radical Bikesports championship ended with some exhilarating racing and last-minute thrills. Class A went down to the wire in the final race, ending in a hard-fought victory for Keevill, while Morrell retained the Class B Championship title with a third championship victory. Leon Morrell also ended the season as overall Champion.
Changes are coming for next season with the Radical Bikesports Championship set to be re-branded as the 2025 Radical Club Challenge. It will be featuring a dedicated class for SR1 models in Radical Cup UK specifications. Changes to the regulations will not only allow the SR1 models to race in their own dedicated class to accrue SR1 points, but also compete for the overall title against a mixed field comprising all Radical models.
To read more about it click here for our full article on the all-new Radical Club Challenge.